What is your take on Hurley and the Refs?

[Scoe]

Is it possible they're both in the wrong? I'm not gonna pick a side here.

It's like someone gets into an argument then talks behind that persons back, usually most people will nod and agree or at least pretend to agree with that person to avoid any conflict. There's 2 sides to a story and there's a good chance both are in the wrong.

 

[homunculus]

I think it was the early fouls that set him off.

It was not as you described. Players had arms up, not bodying the driver at all, feet moving.

The driver initiated contact and got the foul call. This is why we had so many starters on the bench so early in the game.

On the other side of the court, Memphis was hacking, using hands, 2 hands to push, everything we've been told needs to be called.

You can adjust and play the game the Memphis way and then you won't get called for fouls, but it's such a bad kind of basketball. No idea why the refs prefer to give the advantage to teams that isolate and drive over teams that want to run offensive plays.

That's how it as last night.

This is exactly correct.

Then they are forced to play softer defense because the fouls are piling up, which is then what people pick up on and blame the loss on.

 

[Excalibur]

Valid reasons to be upset at the refs, no possible valid reason to pick up a T with 40 seconds left in a tie game in OT

The officials timed the T for maximum impact.

 

[Excalibur]

I don't mind the nastiness with refs. I do mind when the timing loses games for the team.

I mind the timing as well, but not in the sense you mean.

 

[Excalibur]

I am surprised by the number of hothouse flowers we have on this board.

I stand with Coach. Period.

When losing hurts more than winning feels good, you have guys that are wired differently. Michael Jordan punched his own teammates in practice. Calhoun had one of the shortest fuses in the history of the sport. Larry Bird had a temper.

Truth is, if the team showed half the fire that Hurley showed we wouldn't have been in that predicament to begin with. We played like crap in the last cupcake warm up and we played sloppy on both ends of the floor yesterday and he won't accept it and neither will I. Keep doing exactly what you're doing, Coach.

I'm 95% with this. I only object to the second part of his postgame quote about deserving a better whistle (yes it's 100% correct but needs to remain unsaid) and what appear to be jawing at the officials after Ball's tying basket.

 

[businesslawyer]

To me he needs to know better than that. You don’t put you team in that position with time running out. No excuse for those kinds of histrionics. You want throw a fit in the first half, have at it. This is a return to 2022 Hurley who cost his team games with his nonsense. He seemed to have it under control. Now it’s back.

I see shades of Bob Knight in some of his actions which would be kind of sad. Great coach remembered as much for throwing chairs and physically attacking players as his 3 National Championships. For a long time he got away with stuff until he didn’t. It would be very sad to see Hurley go down that path.

No. Absolutely not. Getting T‘d up for opening your mouth is a coaching flaw. Physically attacking players is a personal flaw. Not a comparison that it’s fair to make.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

You get foul calls when you attack the basket. Memphis was attacking the basket at will because our perimeter guys can’t stop penetration. Whether they were warranted or not, calls come that way. We really didn’t attack the paint much because we don’t really have players that can break down their guy 1v1.

 

[FearThePups]

When you teach excellence you demand excellence in return. We can talk all we want about “knowing the situation”, etc but that’s not how people like Danny, Steve Jobs, etc are wired. Liam did an excellent job of high-pointing the rebound exactly how you’d teach it, the ref’s blew the call. Where it will always be a journey for Danny (and us as fans) is expecting perfection.

The refs were horrible.

 

[FearThePups]

Refs are incompetent showboating egomaniacs. If Hurley's antics cost us a game or two, I can live with it. If it gets the players fired up, even better.

Agreed

 

[cellocgg]

The reffing was quite egregious. It's obvious his heart is in the right place; he's very passionate which is great but Hurley needs to learn to control himself. It's not entirely his fault we lost but he played a part, he doesn't get to use refs as an excuse and shouldn't complain about them the way he did to the media.

I'd imagine he'll mellow out after this for a while

A lot of neutral observers are painting Hurley to be some classless monster which is equally ridiculous and just bitter jealousy. Hurley isn't the first coach to get into it with the refs

 

[Iluvsuebird]

I can't believe people are taking the side of the referee over Dan Hurley. You don't get to make a terrible call and then double down on it by T'ing up the coach in the THAT situation. If you let Hurley mouth off all game long, you don't pick that moment to T him up either. Where is the accountability for referees in this sport?

College basketball needs a challenge option because these refs are consistently terrible. Hurley is not even asking for a favorable whistle, he is asking for a FAIR whistle. We don't even get a fair whistle. Does anyone remember last year when Goodman reported that numerous refs told him that they have a personal animus against Dan Hurley? Yeah. And we're supposed to expect them to be unbiased? This is something that borders on match fixing and I cannot believe that it wasn't investigated to find out which refs told Goodman that.

are you serious? He was riding those refs since minute #1. I get that the refs were one sided. I get that a bunch of those calls were ticky tacky calls. But damn, dude is 52. Gotta show some restraint. I bet you in March he will acknowledge it when he is getting interviewed at the Final 4.

 

[Zonepress]

You get foul calls when you attack the basket. Memphis was attacking the basket at will because our perimeter guys can’t stop penetration. Whether they were warranted or not, calls come that way. We really didn’t attack the paint much because we don’t really have players that can break down their guy 1v1.

Excellent post
You actually watch the game thank you

 

[Excalibur]

You get foul calls when you attack the basket. Memphis was attacking the basket at will because our perimeter guys can’t stop penetration. Whether they were warranted or not, calls come that way. We really didn’t attack the paint much because we don’t really have players that can break down their guy 1v1.

Reed was mugged underneath on multiple occasions. We were feeding the post and not getting calls.

 

[Zonepress]

Wait, you’re saying Dan Hurley is a front runner? The guy who navigated us to back-to-back titles. I swear the BY is not real.

He’s a front runner because he didn’t abuse officials when he was winning games by easy margins
He obviously doesn’t have the team he had the last two years so he goes back to abusing officials
That’s exactly what the front runners
He’s on good behavior when things are going well and as soon as it doesn’t, he isn’t

 

[BlueandOG]

I am surprised by the number of hothouse flowers we have on this board.

I stand with Coach. Period.

When losing hurts more than winning feels good, you have guys that are wired differently. Michael Jordan punched his own teammates in practice. Calhoun had one of the shortest fuses in the history of the sport. Larry Bird had a temper.

Truth is, if the team showed half the fire that Hurley showed we wouldn't have been in that predicament to begin with. We played like crap in the last cupcake warm up and we played sloppy on both ends of the floor yesterday and he won't accept it and neither will I. Keep doing exactly what you're doing, Coach.

It has nothing to do with being a hot house flower. It has everything to do with winning. Coach cost us the game. Period. He needs to do better.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Reed was mugged underneath on multiple occasions. We were feeding the post and not getting calls.

To be fair, they were letting the big boys bang. Dainja didn’t get any calls either.

 

[Kenny11]

Hurley is who he is. He’s a great coach and he’s crazy and obsessed. He’s going to lose his Shh sometimes. It cost us the game yesterday

 

[Icehawk]

I love the passion, hate the timing of this T though. Also, I think Ts should be announced and explained, that first one is and was a real head scratcher.

I do wish he’d try tempering the insults/language, hard to defend him when he’s just straight up swearing at the refs all game. Leave that to us!

Those two elbow calls are a real WTF though.

 

[Mr. French]

He’s a front runner because he didn’t abuse officials when he was winning games by easy margins
He obviously doesn’t have the team he had the last two years so he goes back to abusing officials
That’s exactly what the front runners
He’s on good behavior when things are going well and as soon as it doesn’t, he isn’t

This is odd. And objectively wrong.

 

[Improviser]

If it gets the players fired up, even better.

Maybe so, if done earlier in the game, but not in OT when we had momentum.

Calhoun would deliberately draw technicals when the players were sloughing off, but I don't recall him doing it very much when the game was on the line.

This was bad timing on Hurley's part.

 

[98Uconn]

Dan’s quotes seem to imply that we should be getting more respect from the refs due to our success…..
The thing is.. that respect needs to be earned, and by non stop talking to the refs like they are dog **** on your shoe, you’re never going to get the treatment you want.
It’s simple human nature.. you can’t force someone to respect you by denigrating them constantly.

 

[freescooter]

No. Absolutely not. Getting T‘d up for opening your mouth is a coaching flaw. Physically attacking players is a personal flaw. Not a comparison that it’s fair to make.

Look how it started with Knight. Uncontrollable anger at bad calls while he was at Army. The one in the NIT was infamous. The one at Rupp. Throwing the chair. All started with losing control over calls. I’m not saying Hurley will head down that road. Just that he needs to watch himself. For crying out loud, He’s still yapping at the press conference. And still not taking responsibility. He got hit with a T in a tie game with 40 second left in double ot. Not in the first half. He threw himself on the floor like a friggin’ 2-year old.

I thought he was over this nonsense. But it’s back. I just hope he gets himself under control again. And show some class.

 

[Mike Honcho]

I can't believe people are taking the side of the referee over Dan Hurley. You don't get to make a terrible call and then double down on it by T'ing up the coach in the THAT situation. If you let Hurley mouth off all game long, you don't pick that moment to T him up either. Where is the accountability for referees in this sport?

College basketball needs a challenge option because these refs are consistently terrible. Hurley is not even asking for a favorable whistle, he is asking for a FAIR whistle. We don't even get a fair whistle. Does anyone remember last year when Goodman reported that numerous refs told him that they have a personal animus against Dan Hurley? Yeah. And we're supposed to expect them to be unbiased? This is something that borders on match fixing and I cannot believe that it wasn't investigated to find out which refs told Goodman that.

There are plenty of fair critiques of the refs from yesterday, but here's my take:

• They were obviously calling it super tight, with a whistle 19 seconds in. Instead of adjusting to how the game was called, Hurley expected the refs to bend to his will and loosen up a bit. It's a reasonable stance, but given that Memphis was in the double bonus with over 10 minutes to go in the half, there was ample time to reflect and change strategy. Our coaching staff did not.
  
  
• We have a fouling problem. Samson is a fouling machine. He fouled out in 5 minutes in the national championship game. Our guards have been way too handsy, especially Solo. We contest everything even after we've been beat.
  
  
• The over the back call was not as egregious as you're making it out to be. We're UConn homers and obviously we wanted the call, but it was a 50/50 call at best. Had Danny picked his spots and decided what he wanted to get worked up about, I'm sure he wouldn't have gotten rung up in that situation. But he was a maniac the entire night.
  
  
• The cameras panned away, but right after the game ended, they showed Kimani (and not Dan) going up to Penny to shake hands. Danny got into the scene soon thereafter, but it seemed pretty clear that he was (again) going after the refs. He has acknowledged that his reputation has preceded him in some instances, and I'm sure he'd agree that this is not the way to remedy that perception.

And also, we gave up 99 points yesterday. Just let that sink in.

 

[Woodson]

Still waiting for our apology!
…
Lol

 

[Deepster]

It has nothing to do with being a hot house flower. It has everything to do with winning. Coach cost us the game. Period. He needs to do better.

I disagree with you. I could point to 20 other things that “cost us” the game over that T.

Ohhhhh, our coach lost his temper! Be better!!! Boo hoo. It’s like the Calhoun years are forgotten here. Pansies.